A Shattered Sun
by The3o0
Summary: Yang has never had a driving purpose in life. With the exception of a few people, she has never even grown particularly close to others. Her sister Ruby has been her shining beacon in this cold world for as long as she can remember. But what happens when the cruel world threatens to snuff her shimmering light for good? - Rated T for language. - Rest in peace Monty Oum.
1. Chapter 1

**A Shattered Sun**

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><p>Pain. That is all I feel right now. I feel nothing but a pain, that is not only restricted to the physical agony, and torture that I feel presently, but also a deep psychological rending that originates from the scene that can be clearly seen around me.<p>

I open my eyes, their colors slowly fading from the smoldering incarnadine like color that they were mere seconds ago, into the softer lilac coloring that they are usually hued when I am not angry. I look straight up into the sky, and see a tranquil scene play out above me. It is a beautiful day, next to no clouds in the sky, the sun shining down on me, warming me with its invisible rays of heat. I look slightly to my right, and see a white, fluffy looking cloud slowly making its way across my vision, reminding me of a marshmallow because of the way it is roughly shaped.

I am torn away from this calming sight by the gentle sound of something to my left. Something so similar to the breeze, but a sound that I know very well to be something other than the gentle gusts of air that cool my body currently. I slowly crane my neck to my left side, grimacing and cursing silently under my breath at the pain I can feel originating at my spine, between my shoulder blades; said pain creeping was its way up the base of my neck, to the back of my pounding head.

I am greeted by the sight of a large clearing in a forest, the grass in the section of the clearing that is now visible to me trampled, as if something large and heavy had trodden upon it recently. There were also chunks of the ground that were uprooted, and propelled various distances from their original placing, some lightly smoking, and looking singed. Almost as if a great force of fire had taken them from their rightful places among the grass, and thrown them aside carelessly, not thinking of the effects of its actions. Deep gouges in the ground also obvious to anyone who would gaze upon them, as if something lengthy and slender had edged its way through the earth, effectively scoring it, and left its mark on the ground itself time and time again, in various differing locations around the clearing. Emerald topped trees are evident to me, lining the far side of this clearing of the forest that I have found myself dwelling throughout this fine day. However, none of these sights matter to me. My eyes glided straight past all of these sights negligibly, in search of the source of this nearly natural sound that I know all too well.

Sliding smoothly past these no longer relevant sights, my eyes search the ground around me, locking onto the source of this sound that is so deceivingly similar to a breeze, yet still just slightly different enough for those who hear it often to tell the difference. To my left side, nearly fifteen feet away, lies a dark shape, on the ground, slowly eroding and being carried away by the wind; this mass, forming a short, stocky shape of something similar to an animal, with four legs, a tail, and a snout. The creature stained a color of black, shades darker than the darkest of midnights. It bears disk-like, off-white colored bones that are protruding from its body that sprouted forth along its back, sides, and legs forming together to make a sort of armor plating to protect the vile creature, that is lacking along its underbelly. It has long, blunt tusks curling up out of its head in front of it, curving outwards and upwards at first, and then curls back towards its own dark form, coming to two, razor sharp points just below the apex of the beast's form. Upon its head, it has formed another mass of thicker, stronger bone into something that can best be described as a mask. Holes are evident in the "Mask" for the creature's four eyes: two being side by side, with another set positioned slightly above the first, all four pupil less looking glasses are tinted a flame like, dark orange color that clashes heavily with the rest of its black and white form, giving it an even more ominous, and foreboding kind of look to its features. Upon this "Mask" that encases the head and snout of this vile creature of Grimm, there are a series of fine, intricate markings intertwining throughout the surface of the "Mask", looking as if something had carefully chipped apart small sections of the "Mask" no more than fractions of an inch deep, all around its head that eventually snaked their way down and throughout the creatures tusks and fangs that protrude from the creatures jaw. These fangs jutting down from the creatures head, measuring, at the least, half a foot in length, each coming to a razor sharp point below it's currently dripping maw.

The small droplets of drool-like liquid stained the same blacker than night hue of the majority of its body, slowly, and individually hit the ground. On contact with the earth, they instantaneously evaporate into small, dark, dense clouds of black fog which slowly disperse, spreading father and farther apart, as they rise into the sky, until they can no longer be seen. The markings are stained a deep red color, making it look almost like the creature bit into something living, and sucked the lifeblood from it. Then proceeded to use the same life giving substance to stain it's monstrously intricate visage, the nearly burgundy color that it is dyed currently. Two markings on the creature's visage standing solitary from the remainder of the similar markings, forming into a shape that can most easily be described as an open eye, and pupil, stained the same dark red as the rest of the markings. This is what I know this horrific creature to look like, though you could not see these features on this particular Grimm. Because there is a gaping hole in its head, roughly the size of a softball.

These features are now rendered irrelevant, because of one fact: this Boarbatusk was dying, evident by the fact that it is disintegrating right in front of my eyes. It's solid, dark mass slowly eroding away, to be carried away by the occasional breeze flowing through the clearing. The sight is similar to a large, black as night, mass of rose petals stirring from the corpse and being carried away with the wind, but I know better. It may look like it is gone, now that the corpse has fully disintegrated, and the petal like bits of mass are gone from my sight, slowly evaporating into seemingly nothingness, but I know that it is not gone; quite contrary to that fact. The now scattered matter from this eviscerated beast will eventually be utilized again, formed together to create another creature of Grimm. Made to come forth from whatever god forsaken hellhole they could possibly be made within, and cut loose to torment, destroy, and slaughter any and all humans in its path, with no discrimination, or remorse for its actions.

The sight of this now long gone creature of Grimm piques something in the back of my mind. I suddenly remember why my right arm is in such insufferable agony as of now. This somewhat brings my thoughts of out the clinging fog that has become of my mind, and I take inventory of the injuries that torture me now, in their agonizing grasp. My left leg bones, below the knee, have somehow been snapped into several pieces. From the point of the breaks down, the rest of my leg is turned an unnatural 90 degrees to my left. The sharp, jagged edge of one, previously connected end now protruding from my ripped open skin, and is exposed to the sharp, coppery atmosphere of the clearing I find myself in currently. There is a long gash, running along my abdomen, its length spanning from the top of my pelvic bone, on the left side of my body, up, and along my torso to the right, until it stops just below the center of my rib cage. The cut running shallow at the beginning, and end of its course, but nearly three inches in depth at the deepest part of itself, and at that same location, measures several inches in length, parallel to its own direction. This injury being the main perpetrator behind the reason that I now lie here, marinating in a considerable amount of my own blood as it currently soaks the grass, and earth around me. Saying that my right arm is broken would be the biggest understatement ever... Of all time. What's left of the bones, that I can feel, have been crushed, pulverized, and nearly ground into non-existence. Not counting the numerous, cuts, bruises, and burns that now litter my body, I have one more outstanding injury. There is blood currently seeping from a wound on my forehead.

If I recall correctly, I was struck there by something with a very great amount of force. Thus resulting in not only the pain, swimming vision, and seemingly foggy, uncooperative mind I now suffer from, and cannot rid myself of. But also splitting the skin open wide, allowing a large amount of my life blood to pour out. This now beginning to slowly make its way down the right side of my face, causing a sudden burning sensation in my right eye before I instinctually close it, to prevent any further harm to my gelatinous organ.

A thought occurs to me. I am bleeding somewhat profusely from my numerous wounds. The air I breathe in now from the atmosphere around me is very heavily coated with the scent of copper, and is starting to choke me, rather than fuel my exhausted, ravaged body. The creatures of Grimm leave behind no trace, whatsoever of their existence once they fade away. No kind of sight or scent in any way shape or form. There is no way that the amount of blood I have lost could stain the air this horridly with its choking scent. I suddenly feel as if I have been struck in the gut, making the previously arduous labor that was breathing through this smog, nearly impossible. Having had the wind taken from me because of a realization that makes me wish all of this was some sick, twisted nightmare. That had possibly been spawned from the very depths of hell itself, thought up, and sent to my mind to plague me, by some soul reaping demon, or possibly, even by the devil himself. It would be easier to accept that theory than what I currently fear I would find, should I turn, and look the other direction.

I slowly roll my head along the ground to my right, being painfully reminded of the injury to my spine. While turning my head, I find myself brushing several errant strands of hair out of the way of my currently, only unobstructed eye, using my relatively intact left arm. Hair that just minutes ago, had been a smoldering, iridescent, golden, flame like color, which now, has begun to slowly fade, and return to its usual honey like color. I usually take the utmost of care whenever I deal with it. It being, in my opinion, one of the largest factors that attribute to my stunningly good look only added to the fact that it is also tied to my fighting prowess. Not many know this, but I can use it as a conduit to channel my aura through, similar to my beloved weapon, Ember Celica. I use this greater area that I am able to focus my aura into, to strengthen my natural abilities: the longer my hair is, the amount of aura I can summon, and project at once is increased. Thusly, the amount I can focus into a strike is amplified vastly. When I am required to during a fight, I can use this ability to put a devastating amount of force behind every punch, kick, and projectile I fling towards my enemies, enhancing every blow with the power of my very soul. Though now some portions of my glorious mane are now matted together, and dyed a dark red from the blood I have shed from my multiple wounds. I no longer care about any of this, and grasp the strands that now block my view in my uninjured hand. I then proceed to rip them out of my head, thus clearing my line of sight.

Through the view of my one, now unobstructed eye, I see something that makes me feel as if I've just had my entrails ripped from my body, and my heart leap into my throat. I see more decimation of the clearing, very similar to the side I was facing beforehand. It is a near replica, with the exception of one thing. There is a mass of red fabric, portions of it being a bright crimson color, having splotches of a darker, maroon like red color staining the cloak in differing spots. There are sections that are sliced open, leaving gashes that look like they were cut with a razor sharp knife. Other areas are burned clean through, leaving holes in the material, and singed, still slightly smoking edges around the sites of the burns. I can see a small portion of her face that isn't covered by the cloak. The tip of her nose, her forehead, the ends of her black hairs, which she has dyed a bright crimson color to match her beloved cloak. And her lips too, which are now slack, and ajar. On the ground, around the eerily still figure, is the ground of the clearing. There is a slight, crater like indentation in the ground that is roughly shaped to her form. The grass around her stained a dark burgundy color. Slung a few feet from her still form, I can see her beloved hybrid sniper-scythe, Crescent Rose. It currently lies on the ground, in its fully extended form, though it shows signs of battle damage as well. There are a multitude of scuffs, scratches, and dents running the length of the weapon that is "overkill incarnate", as I have deemed it. The scope, I can see, has been crushed, and the lens' shattered and rendered useless.

One more thing makes itself evident to me. Along the blade of Crescent Rose, near the tip of the long edge, where the mecha-shift pivot point is for the end of the blade is now warped, and half gone. I see it, along with the rest of the blade embedded in the ground, close to the rest of the weapon. I take in all this information, and by some miracle, am able to form a coherent though. The girl that I love most in the world is no greater than twenty yards away from me. From the look of her, she has sustained several very, very serious injuries, evident by the amount of blood that coats the earth around her, and I am too far away to determine whether or not she is still breathing.

_I must get to her._ That is the one and only thought that is currently singed into my mind. I roll my body over to my right, going from lying on my back, to lying on my stomach in a prone position. I begin attempting to drag myself to her, using my limbs that have yet to be eviscerated.

_I need to get to her..._ I have dragged myself a few feet.

_I have to get to her..._ I have dragged myself several yards now.

_I must save her... _My movement slowly comes grinding to a halt. I do my very utmost best to push through the pain that I now feel, which I do not believe can be explained with words. I feel several cuts on the left side of my face begin to sting, and burn sharply, and realize that I am now crying out of my unobscured eye. Despite my best efforts, I find that I have stopped crawling after going no more than ten feet.

_I HAVE to save her!_ This is the only thought in my mind. It causes me to continue pushing myself, despite the fact that I am already leagues past my threshold. I only get a few more feet, before I am no longer able to drag myself any further. The agonizing pain of my injuries takes hold of me, and my world begins to fade from the outward edges in. My vision slowly constricting until it is nothing but a darkness that rivals the void itself. I can now only see through a small point in the middle of my vision, no bigger than a quarter, which is focused on Ruby's face.

"Ruby..." I utter her name, and reach my only functioning arm out, in an attempt to reach her. My vision slowly resumes it's constriction from the outwards in. The size of the area I can now see from being no bigger that the head of a pin. Before I can attempt to shake the darkness from my vision, or drag myself closer to her ominously still form, I feel the remainder of my strength leave me, and I begin to go limp, my arm falling to the forest floor. My exhausted, battered, and broken body was no longer able to hold the weight of my head above the ground. My face hits the earth, my mind going blank. The pain was slowly ebbing away; slowly, bit by bit, as I lose all connections to this world…Except one thing; the sight of my baby sister, broken, lying in a shallow pool of her own blood. I can do nothing to save her. Everything goes dark. I can no longer think. I can no longer see. I can no longer feel anything. One final thought slowly fades from my mind, that being that the sole remaining purpose of my life, my baby sister, is now nothing but a still, most likely dead remainder of what used to be a human being. As this one final morbid thought slips out of my consciousness, I am embraced by a lightless, heart rending, soul crushing emptiness.

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><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong> Here is the first chapter of my first story that I've ever written. This story will go on for several more chapters, a currently undefined amount. This being because I will go until I get to a point where I think i can end it. Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed. I have one request of all that read through this, being that you leave a review for me, giving me your opinion of the first chapter. What you thought was good, what you thought was bad, and why. I don't by any means consider myself a skilled writer, and even if I did, I know that you can always improve, no matter what you're doing. So please, help me improve in this new hobby of mine, so that I may, in turn, improve this hopefully worth wile story.

Credit goes to another author on this site, pen name Barzu, for editing this clunky beast and making it much more readable.

-Thunder


	2. Chapter 2

**A Shattered Sun**

[Three days earlier.]

In front of me I can see a multitude of things. Gazing above the heads of the sea of people before me, I can clearly see a wall. Its symmetry being broken every few feet by large, clear windows that span several feet in length, and yards in height. These windows are broken down into smaller segments, making the shapes of boxes that fill the frame of the sill.

"Yang." From beyond these windows, I can see the pillars of the building I'm currently in, and several Oak trees spread across the expanse of the school courtyard.

"Yang…" Between the large windows, there are pillars. Molded from the cream colored wall itself that have rectangular patterns on them, made to match the shapes of the windows.

"YANG!" I break free from my observations of the school's cafeteria with a start.

"Wha…?" When I look for the source of the outburst, I find the rest of team RWBY looking at me with differing interests. Weiss, once she sees that I have snapped out of my pondering, rolls her eyes, and looks away from me. Her chin is raised haughtily like it is the majority of the time she talks to me. _She so needs to loosen up… _Blake starts to smirk slightly at my plight, and is polite enough to attempt hiding it behind her hand that is not currently occupied by one of her books. When I look to Ruby, I see her nearly staring daggers at me, looking annoyed for some reason.

"What's up sis?" I ask cautiously before she can hurt me with her stares.

"We _were _trying to figure out how we're gonna get the lien to fix the cafeteria, but then you totally zoned out." I look up at the ceiling on the other side of the room, finding the spot that I flew through last week during that EPIC food fight with team JNPR. It still stands out glaringly, due to the fact that they only patched over the hole that I made on my way to the stratosphere, and said patch looks obviously newer than the rest of the ceiling. I look back down to talk to my sister, who is beginning to look slightly angry with me.

"Hey! That wasn't my fault! Nora was the one who tried to make me a makeshift astronaut, with that melon hammer of hers." As I say this, I lift up my hands in a sign of surrender, also slowly leaning back, just in case Ruby decides to lunge at me.

"You're just lucky Professor Goodwitch was able to fix everything else that we broke during that fight." Weiss enlightens me with this bit of information that she must have thought I had forgotten, in the two hours it's been since we were last lectured on how dangerous, and destructive we were being. _God she can be SO annoying sometimes… _

"It was considerate of her to charge our teams only for the damage she could not fix herself." Blake says this, deciding not to lord this problem over Yang, like the other two. _As if it was my fault… At least she's not getting on my case for this. _

"You okay Yang? It's not like you to just zone out like that." I take a second to think on Blake's question, before I answer.

"Yeah… It's just, this feeling. Something's…off… I can't really explain it." I begin thinking back to my previous thoughts, slowly losing contact with the world again. That peace is soon shattered completely.

"Hmm… I think you'd look good in a space suit." She says smugly while smirking at me with that Cheshire-esque smile of hers, effectively wrenching me from my thoughts yet again. _I would be mad, if I weren't so proud that she's growing a sense of humor. _I settle for shooting her a dirty look.

"Right, now we just need a way to make enough lien to pay for the repairs." Ruby begins, back to her usual, joyful self. Taking me away from my thoughts once again, and getting the conversation back on track.

"I have a mission from the board here. It won't cover the entire cost, but it'll definitely help us get enough." Ruby continues, explaining the parameters of the mission. The board being the student's nickname for the electronic interfaces where team leaders can request missions within their team's capabilities.

"The mission is to go into the Emerald Forest, track down, and kill a pack of Beowolves that has been harassing the train tracks around the area. Simple enough. It also says that this particular pack isn't very big, so they're only requiring two students to deal with them, instead of an entire team." After Ruby finishes, I can see Blake, out of the corner of my eye, dog-ear her spot in the book, close it, and lay it on the table before speaking.

"I have several assignments that I need to finish before tomorrow's classes, so Yang and I will be sitting this one out." Blake states in a matter of fact fashion. Before anyone else can say anything, I cut in.

"Ruby, you and I should take this one!" I say excitedly.

"I don't think they allow students who aren't partners to partake in missions such as this…" Weiss decrees in her holier-than-thou way that always does wonders to piss me off.

"And where in the rulebook does it say that, Ice Queen?" I query, seeing her grit her teeth upon hearing her nickname that she hates so. _Take that Princess! Yang-1, Weiss-0. _

"Plus, Rubes and I haven't been able to do hardly anything together lately. Between school, and trying to pay for the damn roof, I've hardly even seen her!" When I mention the roof, I throw my hand up towards it, gesturing in frustration. Weiss takes a second to compose herself before speaking, taking a deep breath to stave off the anger from being called her most hated nickname.

"Fine…but, I reserve the right to say I told you so when this blows up in your face." Weiss says, as she begins to lift her chin up yet again. I look to Ruby before I start getting angry.

"So how about it sis; you up for some monster slayin'?" I ask as I beam a bright smile at my sister.

"Sure! Sounds like fun! Plus it means I get some time off from all this homework." She says as she motions to her crimson binder, which sits on the table next to her, visibly stuffed full of various sheets of paper. Said papers sticking out from the edges here and there.

"Great! When's the mission start?" I ask as I lean on the table in front of me.

"Let me see…" She pokes around on her scroll for a few seconds, attempting to find the file of the mission briefing. I hear a multitude of ding-like sound come from the thing before she finds it.

"Aha, got it!" she says victoriously, before she begins to scan the text on the screen.

"Hmm… Ah, it starts in three days. Friday morning, we'll catch a shuttle that they'll have prepared for us, and we'll be at the target location within the hour!" She says, doing a small fist pump out of excitement.

"Awesome!" I say, lifting my arms up in victory. Then I remember what I was thinking about before I zoned out. This thought is mimicked by my stomach when it rings out in a plea for more sustenance.

"Yeah…That's great and all, but I'm gonna go get seconds now. I'm still starving!" I say while making a pitiful face, before I get up and head to the food line for trip number two.

**Author's Note: **I'm back! With me, I bring chapter two! Upon posting the first chapter, I immediately saw people start reading it, and before 24 hours had passed, already had 9 followers, and 150+ views. That's awesome, I wasn't expecting anyone to take interest in this that quickly! Anyway, I realize that this chapter was about a third the length of the first one, but it ran its course, and it would've been awkward to continue on without starting the next chapter, it served its purpose. I would like to ask again for feedback on this story from all who read. Give me the good, and the bad. I can't improve it if I don't know what's wrong, and I want to make this as good as I possibly can, for you guys. Thank you again for reading, and the next chapter should be up within a week or two from the time I'm posting this.

Thanks goes again to Barzu, for being an awesome editor.

Merry Christmas to you all, and I hope you enjoyed!

-Thunder


	3. Chapter 3

**A Shattered Sun**

**[Friday]**

"I think it's about time for us to call it quits sis," I say to Ruby, who is walking a few paces in front of me.

"Maybe… I still can't believe that we haven't found anything yet, even after three hours of searching!" Ruby says, exasperated. I take a look around myself, and I can see the finer details of the Emerald forest. For the most part, you can only see the trees of the forest when you're looking from above, but now I can see all the things below the canopy that you would be blind to, if you were to gaze upon it from above. The trees in this particular area of the forest have grown closer to each other than in other areas, some of the trunks being only five or six feet apart. Due to the fact that the trees have grown so closely together here, there's a maze of roots that mark the forest floor beneath our feet, serving as obstacles to all who would tread upon its pathless expanse.

"It probably hasn't helped that you have to stop every two seconds to unhook your cloak from the bushes." I say, thinking of the several dense gorse bushes that are scattered around this area of the forest. She turns around to make a face at me, and in the process gets her cloak caught in another bush.

"I love how they look and all, but they can be a real pain in the ass…" As I say this, my belt/skirt is snagged, and I have to free myself as well. _"If they weren't so damn pretty, I'd just burn 'em all with a few shots from My Babies. Annoying things…" _I quickly divert my attention away from the bushes.

Luckily, the grass in this part of the forest hasn't grown very high, due to the lack of sunlight that is able to pierce through the canopy of leaves above. The majority of the trees have trunks that are nearly identical in appearance, all a similar shade of brown, some being solid stalks nearly all the way up to the canopy, other splitting off into many branches just a few yards off the ground.

Off to my left, I can see a small cliff face, similar to the one Juane had said the Deathstalker made its home in, and lured him and Pyrrha into during our initiation; the one that almost killed him and his team to be. Before I'm able to continue my examination of the forest around me, something odd grabs my attention. I stop dead in my tracks, and listen for a moment. Once Ruby has noticed that I have stopped, she turns to face me and halts as well.

"What's up sis?" She asks me, raising a dainty eyebrow. I hold a finger to my lips, signaling for her to stay quiet. After a few more seconds of listening, I speak up quietly.

"I think I can hear something…Over there." I say, pointing over to the cliff face, near the forest floor. I feel Ember Celica extending out to its full form, as I ready myself for whatever could be making the noise. I can hear Ruby slowly unfold Crescent Rose behind me, taking care to be as quiet as possible. I stop a few feet in front of the rock face, and wait to hear the sound again.

"There it is again…" I whisper, motioning for Ruby to follow me to the right, along the cliff's base. "_I swear, I just heard someone scream from over here…Is that blood I smell?" _There's one section of the ground and rock that looks as if it were covered purposefully with leaves and vines, and was then plunged through by several large objects. There are also droplets of blood leading into, or maybe out of the hole. I signal for Ruby to position herself on the other side of the formation, and she braces herself once she's in position. I fire a round into the pile of vegetation, using my aura to charge the burn dust in the shell just enough to burn through all of the layers. Once gone, the burnt vegetation reveals a sloping tunnel leading under and into the cliff face. I walk in first, being the close range fighter that I am, and begin to follow the tunnel as it goes down and under the hill. I hear Ruby entering the tunnel behind me, and I snap my fingers, a small flame appearing at the tip of my index. I then use my semblance to feed the flame, making it larger, and it begins illuminating the dark, narrow tunnel. The tunnel itself is about seven or so feet tall, and almost two feet wider than my shoulders on either side. It ends a dozen yards in, and opens into a dimly lit cavern.

I'm shocked by the sight I see in front of me. There are several small wooden tables laid about the main cavern, which have tankards strewn about their tops, bags of lien carelessly left around, and a table in the corner to my right has a large keg of what I assume is mead sat on top of it. All of the tables, as well as the objects scattered about on top of them are splattered with blood. I can see several maps on a table in front of me belonging to the Emerald Forest, some showing the Eastern edge of Vale, and portions of Beacon's grounds. There are several different lines drawn on these maps, marking different routes through the forest, only there aren't supposed to be paths in these areas. All of the paths seem to start on the north shore of Vytal, and lead through the forest to a point marked "Checkpoint 1." By looking at this map, It's safe to say that we're close to this so called 'Checkpoint' now. The lines then continue in a seemingly random order of paths until they reach a second point, which I assume is another checkpoint, but can't confirm due to the blood that is spattered across the face of the map. The second mark is located a short ways southeast of Beacon. They then continue one last time, crisscrossing until they reach several different points on the Eastern border of Vale City.

I am drawn back from my observations by a sound that originates from a few feet to my left, and I am brutally reminded of my initial disgust. The source of the noise was a man lying on his back, who looks as if he were drowning in his own blood. Ruby quickly makes her way to him, setting Crescent Rose on the ground. She then rolls him onto his side, and thumps his back hard to force him to clear his airway. While he splutters his mouthfuls of blood onto the ground, I grab one of the blood stained torches that's lying on the cave floor, and use my flame to reignite it. I then proceed to light a few torches that are connected to the cave walls, better lighting the dreary atmosphere. While I do this, I take time to quickly check all around the main cavern to make sure there are no threats about, and follow a small tunnel that's located on the opposite wall to that of the entrance. At its end, I find a room full of several crates, barrels, and chests that are stacked haphazardly against the walls, and around the room. I begin backtracking to the main room, lowering my raised fist and relaxing, now sufficed that whatever did this is no longer lingering around.

By the time I make my way back to Ruby, the man on the ground has mostly cleared his lungs, and is now breathing slight breaths. His back facing me, and I can see him twitch ever so slightly every few seconds. There are several fresh, grievous wounds that mark the length of his back, looking similar to claw marks, as well as several chunks of flesh that are missing here and there. I take a quick look at the several other dead bodies that litter the floor around the room, all being marked with the same scoring claw marks as the one man left alive. Some of them have even had their throats ripped out, whatever did it having left jagged tear marks on the necks of their victims, which would explain the insane amount of blood that currently coats the ground. I quickly make my way around to the front of the dying man, kneeling in front of him. His eyes are wide open, and bloodshot, darting across several spots on the wall behind me, never staying still for long. I have also just noticed that he is barely whispering something, seemingly to himself.

"So many…Couldn't handle them…All dead…" These were the only things I could make out of his crazed rambling, uttered between short, shaky breaths. I nearly jump out of my skin when he darts out and quickly grabs my arm. His crazed eyes focus on me, and he halts his babbling.

"Need to go…Before they come back!" He says quietly at first, then nearly shouting the second phrase. I can feel his once tight grip on my arm going slack, and his hand falls to the ground. His eyelids slowly flutter shut, and he exhales his last shuttering breath. Ruby looks at me with water in her eyes.

"What do you think he meant by that?" She asks me, fighting back tears.

"I don't know sis, but I don't think these were good men." I say as I stand, just now remembering one of the things that lead me down here, the overwhelming stench of blood. I continue on when she gives me a puzzled look.

"There's a map on one of those tables that has paths marked through the Emerald Forest. They start at the coast, and stop at several points that they called 'Checkpoints.' This seems to be Checkpoint one, Checkpoint two is just outside of Vale, and they lead into the city from there. I also looked in the back of the cave, they have all kinds of crates and chests stashed in there, sorted like they were about to be moved." I point to the several different objects as I mention them, as Ruby continues to look befuddled.

"What are you trying to say sis?" She asks me, her brow knit together in thought.

"I think these guys were smugglers. Routes marked from the ocean to the city and stuff stashed in the back room. And look, they're clothed in furs." She looks around at the bodies, only just noticing that they're wearing mostly animal furs as clothing.

"I think they were stationed here for a long time, and had to hunt for food and clothing." I say, looking to a few wooden bows and quivers of arrows that are leaning against the left wall, and then to the fire pit in the back left corner of the room that holds a slowly dying fire within it, a few squirrels and a beaver being left abandoned to rot on a spit. She takes another look around, and then speaks.

"You could be right…But what happened to them?" She asks, shuddering slightly, a disgusted look on her face.

"I'm not sure…But whatever did this left some nasty claw marks on the smugglers, and even ripped out the throats of a few of them. And if what that guy said was right, there were a lot of them…" I say, looking at the marks on the many bodies, and the recently dead smuggler at my feet.

"Whatever did all this could still be around here somewhere, we need to keep our eyes peeled." Ruby says to me, while retrieving her beloved weapon from the floor of the cave.

"Agreed. Also, now that I think about it, this could have been the work of the pack we've been hunting down." I say, rubbing my chin in thought.

"You may be right, claw marks and ripped throats could easily be from beowolves. And that would explain why he said there were a lot, it probably would've been the whole pack." She says, motioning to the dead smuggler.

"I think we need to check more around this area before we can call this mission over." She states.

"Couldn't agree with you more. These guys might have been scumbags, but no one deserves to die like this." I say, as she nods in agreement.

"Let's go, I'm getting queasy from all the blood and bodies in here, and I'm dying for some fresh air." She says while holding her stomach, and looking slightly green.

"Hold up sis." She looks at me questioningly, and before she can ask why, I explain.

"We can't just leave these guys here to rot. They may have been scumbags, but no one deserves to have their body eaten by foraging animals."

"Then what do we do?" She asks me. I reach down and grab the smuggler at my feet by an arm and a leg, hoisting his body over one shoulder.

"Let's take 'em over by the fire." I say, and she begins helping me move them to their final destination.

We move all the bodies over to the fire pit, laying them on their backs, heads towards the fire. We can see that there are seven of them in total, once we have them all gathered.

"Go ahead sis, I'll be right out." I say as she makes her way towards the entrance. I begin unloading several shells from Ember Celica.

I remove the ends that hold the primer, and one by one pour the ground up burn dust on the ground. The first one I empty on the ground between the smugglers and the fire. I then empty several more across all of the bodies. The last one I empty on the floor, leading into the fire, effectively making a fuse that when burnt, will burn the cold bodies. I stash the dismantled shells in a pocket as I head for the entrance, not wanting to be around to see or smell the bodies go up in smoke.

I begin making my way out to the opening in the cliff face. "_Those guys were torn up bad…If there wasn't such little space in there, there would be no way a small pack could have done all of that. Although, the only weapons I saw in there were the bows and arrows, and they were just plain wooden bows, nothing fancy…No wonder they got massacred…" _

I exit the cave entrance as Ruby turns around to greet me.

"Where to now sis?" She asks, most likely trying to get back into a good mood, after seeing that massacre. After discussing the best route to take, we decide to go north for a mile or so along one of the smugglers paths, and then loop around to southeast to cover the whole area around the den.

Once we pass what we believe is South of the den, we begin making our way northwest, attempting to complete the circle. Just before we come back to the path we started on, we pass through the West side of a large clearing, and just before we reach the opposite end, I begin to feel something. I stop for a moment, realizing that the ground has started to shake slightly. A second later I begin to hear what sounds like hundreds of feet hitting the ground at the same time. I whip around to see what is causing these disturbances.

"Oh shit…" I say, deadpanning as I expand Ember Celica into its full form, hearing Ruby deploy Crescent Rose into the ground, and chamber a round. I ready my stance for what I can see coming at us from the other side of the clearing, and look down briefly to make sure I did it correctly. In my right hand is my scroll, which has the pictures of Weiss and Blake on screen, and green words flashing "Message Sent." I quickly slide the scroll back into its pocket and ready myself for what's about to happen.

**Author's Note: **Don't you just love cliffhangers!? No? Sucks to be you then, cuz I've learned a thing or two from my time watching Lost, and boy, let me tell you, it's only beginning. Thank you again to all who have read through this story so far, especially those of you who have taken time to favorite, and write reviews. I hope you all liked it, and as usual, write me a review for this chapter. Tell me what you thought was awesome (hopefully there's some of that,) tell me what sucked, tell me how much you hate me for leaving you with such a ginormous cliffhanger. I want it all!

See you next time!

-Thunder


	4. Chapter 4

To all of you who are unaware, one of a dying breed, a great man, has died today. The creator of the Web-Series RWBY, has passed away due to unforseen circumstances. For all of those who wish to learn more, visit my profile; I have set up a full article in memory of Monty Oum and his life.

Rest In Peace.


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